Jeremy Greene’s invited lecture at Bowdoin College explored how disposability became embedded in modern medicine, and why healthcare waste should be understood as the result of historical choices rather than an inevitable feature of care.

Reflections on the 2025 European Association for the History of Medicine and Health conference, where project members organised a panel and launched two new books, Bruno J. Strasser introduced The Mask: A History of Breathing Bad Air and Anne Kveim Lie and Jeremy Greene launched Medicine on a Larger Scale: Global Histories of Social Medicine.

How can contemporary collecting shape our research on single-use plastics while guiding ethical curation, museum collaboration, and future preservation?

Billions of plastic syringes end up in waste, fuelling a hidden environmental crisis. The technology to promote safe recycling already exists - if the healthcare sector can move beyond stigma to embrace these solutions.

How did single-use devices become the norm in healthcare - and what paths were lost along the way? Our "Contingencies" workshop explored history, possibilities, and alternative futures.